Mud and the Beginning of Love and Relationships

This is Jeff Nichols. He is the writer/director of the 2012 film, Mud. He spent over ten years working on the script, peppering it with a mixture of personal experiences, symbolism, and literary allusions.

Jeff's cool, older, punk-rock brother, Ben.

Mud's "reminder."

Young Mark Twain was friends with another young boy named Tom Blankenship. Tom's father was a drunk, and Twain drew from this memory to create Huck Finn's dismal living situation.

At its heart, Mud is an adventure story. My own love for the film stems from its power to make me feel like a young boy again. Ellis, who is the film's actual star, forms the movie emotional core. While he is no doubt hungry for the adventure and imagination that Mud himself provides in droves, he spends the course of the film searching for love: seeking to understand his parents' failing marriage, looking for a girlfriend, and trying to find some example of ideal love.

The pain of one's first heartache is the worst. This film captures that beautifully. 

The pain of all of this is palpable, and like any good Bildungsroman, Mud ends on a bittersweet note: Ellis looses his innocence, but emerges older and wiser.

Your Task

Select three characters from the film, and describe/analyze what Ellis learns regarding love and relationships from them. If possible, describe/analyze if the character represents a mirror image of Ellis (For example: Does Mud represent an older Ellis with his romantic sensibilities?)

Does this man ever wear a shirt?

Ellis' dad

Tom Blankenship

Galen

May Pearl

Juniper

Ellis' mom

• Post your responses in the comment section below. 
• Be thoughtful and make specific references to the film.

Due before class - Monday, 1/26

PARCC Style Writing

Alexander Pope once wrote:

“How happy is the blameless vestal’s lot!
The world forgetting, by the world forgot.
Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind!
Each pray’r accepted, and each wish resign’d”

John Milton's devil seems to equate obedience with godliness (Yeah, he resents this!).

Paradise Lost, Book IV:

“From their own mouths; all is not theirs it seems:
One fatal Tree there stands of Knowledge call’d,
Forbidden them to taste: Knowledge forbidd’n?
Suspicious, reasonless. Why should their Lord
Envy them that? can it be sin to know,
Can it be death? and do they only stand
By Ignorance, is that their happy state,
The proof of their obedience and their faith?
O fair foundation laid whereon to build
Their ruin! Hence I will excite their minds
With more desire to know, and to reject
Envious commands, invented with design
To keep them low whom knowledge might exalt…”

Pleasantville, The Truman Show, and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind all portray the horrors of actual utopias, predictability, perfection, obedience, and convenient forgetfulness.

Your Task: Write an essay that explores how two of the listed films portray the desirability of imperfection. Or, in other words, explain how the two films you select depict human nature. 

• Incorporate specific references to each film.

• Also, include a relevant quote from the excerpt from Paradise Lost or another work of literature to support your analysis/main idea.

Due Tomorrow (1/21/15)! 

• This will count as an essay grade.
• 4 paragraphs=full credit!
• Essays submitted late will be subject to a significant loss of points.

Three Act Structure

Harrison Bergeron

Here's a bit of inspiration for all of you. We will revisit this story next week.

"Harrison Bergeron"